tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post5377134920187588035..comments2024-03-24T11:01:27.668-04:00Comments on Resource Insights: East vs West, 'Stuff' vs 'Finance'Kurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-8266459037488300252022-11-02T18:20:16.472-04:002022-11-02T18:20:16.472-04:00Hello Kurt - here is my comment just posted on Res...Hello Kurt - here is my comment just posted on Resilience. Also have just explored the etymology of "economy" in an essay on Medium at https://medium.com/@davemcarthur/what-is-economy-40984b75f3f7<br />All the best from Aotearoa (NZ)<br />On Resilience<br />Kurt writes: “As a military conflict rages in Ukraine between Russia and what the Russian government calls “the West” (apparently meaning NATO allies and particularly the United States)...”<br /><br />We are our language and this quotation reflects our muddled state. Here in New Zealand at the bottom of the South Pacific, our English overlords proudly insist we too are a “Western” nation i.e. civilized, developed, clean, democratic, courageous, trustworthy, humane, inventive and all things great that go with being a White Man colony of the Crown (the City of London). <br />We are better than “the East” i.e. the barbaric, undeveloped, dirty, autocratic, untrustworthy, deceitful, brutal, savages/slaves out there. Our English overlords point North to India, China, Russia, Persia et al or West to Africa as they speak of “The East”. And one thing about our Anglosphere overlords are very certain about is that God is on the side of “the West” and thus, by divine right, they own and can burn all the planet’s minerals at will. <br /><br />It is probable that the Slav peoples of the Russian region understand this language very clearly and are probably aware English, French and Germans historically called them “Slaves”, not “Slavs”. They understand the sun rises in the East of the City of London and sets in the West of the City of London. It is the self-styled centre of the universe, the arbiter of global finance, the spiritual heart of the great Anglosphere Empire. So is the Russian Government somehow wrong to speak of “the West”? Surely they speak with some bitter irony, painfully aware of the hundreds of millions of people who perished at the hand of “the West” this past two centuries?<br /><br />I was interested to note that Kurt writes: “at the beginning of last year when tensions between Europe and Russia were low and no war was in sight.” It is hard to believe he still does not know “the West” has been waging yet another terrible war on the Russian peoples for over a decade - especially since they committed the atrocity of signing a massive $US half trillion trade deal with China about 2014, thus bypassing the control of the “Western” monetary/military system. <br /><br />Now I am not sure what Kurt means when he speaks of “economic” and “economist”, let alone “ecological economist”. In Crown New Zealand “The Economy” officially means a system of planned obsolescence, waste and war.<br />So I checked out the Upside Down Economics link and, sure enough, both the Economist’s pie graph and the Ecological Economist’s chart of US GDP were oblivious to the massive global military industrial complex, which is a huge part the USA GDP. <br />Identify and extract its myriad components from the general goods and services and the inverted pyramid will clearly defy and deny all the principles of physics.<br />This said, Kurt’s chart is a far more truthful portrayal of the tragic state of “The West”. Thank you.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08629904236232567715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-15248172288081922282022-11-02T17:33:34.875-04:002022-11-02T17:33:34.875-04:00Just came across your blog, and I'm delighted ...Just came across your blog, and I'm delighted there is somebody writing along the lines of the sort of things I've been thinking about myself! I get so tired of trying to talk to people that apparently can't even see the sort of things that I see as the most basic building blocks of how the world really works. <br /><br />Your upside-down pyramid is a beautiful representation of the economy. I'd like to add that maybe not that long ago most economists were thinking along similar terms. When the economy was divided into primary (agriculture and mining), secondary (industry) and tertiary (services) sectors, I think it was implicit that it was all resting on the primary sector, with the secondary in the middle and the tertiary topping it all.<br /><br />Something else I've been thinking about recently is that the traditional structure of money reflects this "stuff" vs "finance". There has always been commodity money (stuff) and credit money (finance). Or if you prefer, coins and banknotes. It's only that lately in the West credit money has completely overshadowed commodity money, to the point that most people have even forgotten about the commodity side of money. The difference is that commodity money is positive (real stuff, or "wealth" in old economics books), while credit money is negative. Frederick Soddy had a very good explanation of how credit money isn't real wealth, but "virtual wealth", effectively negative in value. This all has implications for things like interest rates, when you start thinking about it.Lunahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05509941922253290982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-8854079454058194992022-10-31T15:26:46.703-04:002022-10-31T15:26:46.703-04:00Here is a Google translate translation of the Ukra...Here is a Google translate translation of the Ukrainian comment above:<br /><br />Greetings, I was still waiting for an article with elements from "general semantics". (<br />A global system driven by finance was forced to be created to meet the needs of a growing world population. And the "green revolution" and later "neoliberalism" created the illusion of abundance and comfort. Now, when resources are not abundant, but scarce, primarily energy resources. We see how the conventional "apple" is more important than the "dollar". There is one more point, soon "things" will have different importance. E.g. 'tractor', 'smartphone' and 'harness for tow truck' and 'salt' (for example) There is nothing to fuel the tractor (diesel), the tractor becomes junk, no electricity for the smartphone, same thing.<br /><br />We are standing on the edge of a blade, the transition will be terrifying, taking into account the stupidity of politicians, the climate crisis, etc. uncertainty, it's scaryKurt Cobbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-68474060017631368192022-10-30T11:12:44.380-04:002022-10-30T11:12:44.380-04:00Вітаю, я все ж чекав статтю з елементам із 'за...Вітаю, я все ж чекав статтю з елементам із 'загальної семантики'. (<br />Глобальна система, що керується фінансами була вимушено створена для забезпечення потреб зростаючого населення світу. І 'зелена революція' а згодом і 'неолібералізм' створили ілюзію достатку і комфорту. Тепер,коли ресурси не рясні, а дефіцитні, в першу чергу енергоресурси. Ми бачимо наскільки умовне 'яблуко' важливіше 'доллара'. Є ще один момент, скоро і 'речі' будуть мати різну важливість. Наприклад 'трактор', 'смартфон' та 'збруя для тяглової таарини' та 'сіль' (до прикладу) Немає чим заправити трактор (дизель), трактор стає мотлохом, немає електрики для смартфона, те ж саме.<br />Ми стоїмо на краю леза, перехід буде жахаючий, беручи до уваги безглуздість політиків, кліматичну кризу та ін. невизначеності, це лякає...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com